Title page from A speech, intended to have been spoken on the bill for altering the charters of the colony of Massachusett's Bay

A speech, intended to have been spoken on the bill for altering the charters of the colony of Massachusett's Bay

This text shows a strong familiarity with religious and legal thought, referencing England’s constitutional development, including the relationship of Parliament to Ireland as well as the evils arising from the management of India by the East India company. Grounded in the theological universalism of its day, the essay contended that “That just God, whom we have all so deeply offended, can hardly inflict a severer punishment, than by committing us to the natural consequences of our own conduct.”

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The text of these 18th century pamphlets has been converted by machine from scanned PDFs of the original microfilm copies. While the text has been machine-proofed, transcription errors may still remain. For example, the 18th-century long S, ſ , may be rendered as “f,” some words may be incorrectly transcribed, and there may be repeated words or phrases.